We had an Easter egg hunt last night:
weekend
30
Mar 13
The baseball Iron Bowl, game three
With the weekend series tied 1-1, Auburn and Alabama met again to decide the three-game set. Ryan Tella doubled down the right field line in the first inning and probably has a sore neck for his troubles. Mikey White probably has a bruise on his leg:
Will Kendall, still returning from last year’s Tommy John surgery, had another solid outing under his rehab pitch count. He went three innings and allowed only one hit and one run. He walked two and recorded two strikeouts. That’s Austen Smith leading off first for Alabama:
Daniel Koger was solid in long relief. He pitched six innings, walked three, allowed only one hit and one run:
Auburn’s second baseman Jordan Ebert beats a throw back to first. Not that it mattered much. He’d be out on a double play soon after:
And despite pitching a two-hitter, Auburn was down two runs in the ninth inning. Alabama’s Spencer Turnbull was pitching a complete game, with a great defense behind him. Auburn would not get a runner to second base after the first inning.
Auburn hit into four double plays today.
Ryan Tella lined out in the ninth inning:
Auburn lost 2-0 today and have now dropped the first three series of the year.
The biggest problem right now is the bats. Only two players in the lineup are hitting over .300. (To be fair, in conference play they’ve faced five incredible starting pitchers.) The Tigers left two on base today — a statistical anomaly because of all of the double plays. Auburn is stranding eight runners a game so far this season.
The Tigers are 10-44 against the SEC in the major sports – football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and baseball – since the 2012 SEC baseball tournament.
24
Mar 13
Catching up
The post that starts the week with leftover pictures from last week. The post that fills up the space with colorful extra things for no other reason than that the space, and the pictures, are here. And here they are.
A container grown purple and white cabbage. Don’t you want something leafy and delicious now?
Blackberries from a cheesecake dish at Ted’s Montana Grill. I had a caesar salad:
Things are blooming in Opelika …
Hard to believe the picture above and the picture below were taken on the same afternoon. Rain in Atlanta:
And after a week of cold, cloudy, overcast, drizzly, downpourish conditions we finally got a bit of spring. And the ugliest power pole in town. These things should be built along boorish aesthetic guidelines:
Riding up the road behind Grand National:
I think I rubbed my computer halfway through the ride, so this would be the pollen collected over the last 14 or so miles. Lots of pollen:
Today was, I think, the first time we saw the sun since Tuesday. The sun was beaming into the bookshelves during the late afternoon today:
23
Mar 13
Just silliness
It is sad that it is so easy to parody. It shouldn’t be this easy to parody. Thankfully it doesn’t apply to every television outfit, but you watch these and know you’ve seen programs like this.
Almost an inch of rain today, and cold. So it made sense to sleep in today. And it made further sense to enjoy a nap. It warmed up a bit in the evening, and so we grilled out. After that the rains really came.
We’ve had 16 inches of rain so far this year. And that’s how we broke out of a three-year drought.
Tomorrow it will be warmer, but there is more rain in the forecast. I suppose we’ve gotten so accustomed to a lack of rain that an abundance of it seems annoying. Funny how that works.
And so you turn to things like this, which I’m certain will be the next show American TV steals, the Danish program Dumt & Farligt or Stupid & Dangerous. It could be hosted by, I dunno, Keith Olbermann. He’s available, right?
17
Mar 13
Catching up
The weekly post that puts a lot of leftover photographs in front of you and masquerading as good content. (So the only thing that is different about this particular masquerade is … Let me get back to you on that.) Anyway, on with the extra pics!
Saw this guy at the forestry preserve yesterday. He was just running in circles. I thought he needed a slightly less potent breakfast cereal. He was fun to watch:
The big little waterfall at the Louise Kreher Forest Preserve:
No need to take any more pictures of Michael O’Neal on the mound. I probably won’t get a better one than this. Sadly he was tagged with the loss yesterday, his first of the season:
Auburn was swept by Vanderbilt, losing 5-2, 8-1, 8-6. Vanderbilt is a really good team, number two for a reason, but all of last year’s problems crept back up for Auburn. You can’t give the second-ranked team in the nation mental mistakes and errors when facing two first round pitchers. You can’t strand 25 runners across the weekend, but Auburn did. Third baseman Damek Tomscha left six on base himself:
Connor Harrell drove in three runs and scored three himself for the Commodores this weekend:
Below you’re going to find out the story behind this balloon. Just keep going:
The cardinal in our yard:
We saw a Rolls Royce the other day in Atlanta. This is the most unattractively plain car I’ve ever seen:
This satellite receives only plays half the hits, some of the time, at the Warehouse Bistro in Opelika:
Dewayne Reynolds is one of the best balloon makers around. He just happens to be here. Engaging guy, we see him everywhere, he never ceases to amaze. He works the baseball games on some weekends. He stopped by and asked if anyone wanted a balloon and someone asked for Taylor Swift and the screaming goat. (Look it up.)
Dewayne went right to it. “Sure!” And then he probably came to regret taking up the challenge. But it was awesome. Now I hope the guy that got the balloon figures out a way to preserve it. Some creations deserve to be kept around a good long while:
